Founders

Company

Alex Burkhart of Tixers

How did you start your business?
Competing in and winning Cincinnati Startup Weekend helped jumpstart the concept and aligned me with the right people to help get me started.

How did you come up with the idea for your business?
I’m an avid sports fan who grew up traveling to every Major League Baseball park. The idea hit me this year, when I went to three major sporting events in a 24-hour time span: a Notre Dame football game, an Indianapolis Colts game and a Cincinnati Bengals game. I also work in loyalty marketing at Macy’s and wanted to tie in that concept with sports.

What resources here did you take advantage of and how did they help?
I took advantage of the rapidly growing startup community in Cincinnati. It first started with Cincinnati Startup Weekend, but it has grown through relationships established from the competition, mainly from organizers and judges of the competition. Chris Ridenour and Tim Metzner (organizers) and Tarek Kamil (judge) have been instrumental in this. Chris also organizes a tech Meetup in town called Cincinnati Web/Tech Drink Up, which brings many people in the startup scene together once a month.

Also, the events and opportunities offered through the Brandery and Cintrifuse have been a huge help. The innovation culture and community they are creating is on the verge of exploding. In addition, I am a graduate and a current MBA student at Xavier University and their entrepreneurship department has been a great resource.

What inspires you?
Passion and purpose. I am currently in the corporate world, but startups and innovation really invigorate me. I want to build something that I have passion for. My current venture, Tixers, really combines my passion for sports, marketing and entrepreneurship. I want to wake up every day knowing that I was able to create something that not only creates value for my customers (sports fans), but also to those of us who work to create this.

A great book written by the CEO of Zappos, Passion, Purpose, and Profits, is an example of a medium that really inspired me to become an entrepreneur.

What’s next for you and your company?
The next steps are finalizing the team that can really take this concept to the next level and working with those people (mentors, technical services, potential investors, etc.) in the startup community who can help me do this. I’m also continuing to build out the website and/or app, and plan to launch in the near future.